I have a Schimmel upright piano bought brand new 2 years ago and have always had it tuned about every 6-ish months. Now it sounds "ringing" and going out of tune after only 3 1/2 months. It is played every day, hasn't been moved, no changes of extreme temperature etc., so could this be the fault of the last piano tuner? I don't know whether to complain to the shop where it was bought who sent the tuner, or is it just bad luck?

Please advise whether it's normal to go out so quickly since the last tune

Sara

I've had my Yamaha U1 for about five years. The tuner comes out every year. In that time it goes just a little flat, but it's not so bad as to need him sooner. My piano is played by about 50 pupils throughout the week.

Sara, my piano is a similar age. I had it tuned in November, and I had it tuned again yesterday, so like you, only a few months. I did say that I thought it was a bit soon to the tuner, who suggested that with the heating on the house has likely been quite dry which may have caused the tuning to "go off".

Eeek, my piano is terribly out of tune. It hasn't been tuned for about 15 years. I have heard that it's sometimes not possible to tune pianos that are badly out. Is this correct?

Or it might be possible to get it right gradually over the next few years.

I've just taken out and put back in the whole mechanism to my Spencer Piano as the dampers weren't holding the strings down properly. It needs a decent tuning too but the problem is, because I live in a Timber Lodge the temperatures throughout the year are so extreme and I can't afford air-conditioning or the like. Its not too bad to play on though so I'll probably just keep to tuning it once a year or so. At least I've got my Digital to play on but it just isn't the same. After playing an acoustic, even an out of tune one, you realise that a Digital Piano, as great and in tune as it is, just doesn't have the soul of an acoustic!!

Gae

I've found that over the current winter the tuning on both my pianos has gone MUCH more wayward than usual. I had them done in late October/early November, and normally wouldn't be thinking of having them done again until about June, but both are quite bad and are making me cringe when the pupils play scales etc, so I'm having them done in a few days.

I don't know if it's something to do with extreme atmospheric conditions (we seem to have had lots of swings from very mild to very cold in rapid succession, with accompanying bursts of lots of heating in the house - although I try to avoid putting on the heating in the music room, because I know the pianos hate it!). One of my friends has said the same thing - that the tuning on his piano has 'gone' really quickly this time round.

Thanks for the advice. I think the loss of tuning has probably been caused by having the heating on too
much then, rather than a poor tune in the first place. More money then

Sara

Just to be a bit technical, I think the tuning problems are more to do with changes in relative humidity rather than changes in temperature, but the latter in practice causes the former. I think there hasn't been a lot of rain this winter, and with it being cold as well, the result is that a RH level of ~30% has not been uncommon indoors. This is quite dry, and will cause wood instruments of any kind to shrink, with the result that tuning will go off. String players will know this very well; a RH of 40-50% is ideal IMO.

In some parts of North America, the seasonal changes in RH are so large that they can cause structural problems in pianos due to the regular expansion and contraction of the outer materials relative to the more stable inner parts. So, don't grumble too much!

I agree with this.

I had my GB1 tuned three weeks ago (2nd tune since buying it new in July last year) The tuner said it would need doing again in May or June.

I've noticed how very dry this winter has been, as I live in a converted barn with solid wooden interior doors and I'm amazed at the shrinkage on these, so goodness only knows what's going on inside the piano.